Month: February 2012

Top Gear, Season 3 (or is it 2.5?), released its third episode tonight featuring America’s historically most unsafe cars and put them in a demolition derby. It was highly entertaining. What are the most unsafe cars? The Chevy Corvair, the Ford Pinto, and the Suzuki Samurai. The featured car of the episode was the Ariel Atom, a Honda-powered street legal race car. It beat Tanner’s $400k Fiesta on the test track. It was rather impressive watching the footwork of The Stig as he operated throttle, break, and clutch around the track.

Real Madrid played poorly today against Rayo Vallecano. But being the champions that they are, they still won due to a magnificent Ronaldo back heel 18 yards out to the far post. That’s right–back heel. Amazing. One goal earned; clean sheet kept; three points accrued. ¡Hala Madrid!

Chelsea beat Bolton 3-nil at The Bridge today. The first half was rather dull and disheartening. But the Blues came out in the second half with high spirits, and David Luiz scored within the first 2 minutes with a nicely placed far post shot from within the 18. Not much later, Lampard’s corner found Drogba’s head, who placed it down to the ground and into the back of the net. Nearing the end of the game, Lampard controlled a volley into the back of the net to clinch the win.

I want to mention a few things.
1. Torres is not the “Torres of old”; he is the “Current Torres,” that is, a team contributor and not a goal scorer. Let’s utilize him for what he can do currently and not dwell on the past. I’ll take a Torres who can get assists and apply pressure even if he doesn’t score. We need to find a way to get our money’s worth out of him. I think he looked good and valuable during the 14 minutes he was in the game, not £50mil worth, but valuable nonetheless.
2. We are very much a second-half team, which worries me.
3. It was nice to see both Lampard and Drogba get on the score sheet.
4. A clean sheet. Wonderful. And at The Bridge no less.
5. Lampard emerges, again, as the top scorer of the team in all competitions.

Well, we lost to Marseille in the first leg of the round of 16 away to Marseille. At least it was only 1-nil. The major downside to that one goal is that we are now on a negative goal difference again. Boo.

Last week, Top Gear returned on the History Channel in the USA with Rutledge Wood, Adam Ferrara, and Tanner Foust. It was entertaining as they drove big rigs. But it paled in comparison to tonight’s Muscle Cars episode in which Rutledge drove a 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT8, Adam drove a 2012 Mustang GT, and Tanner drove a 2012 Chevrolet Camaro SS (automatic). Competing in three competitions, they set out to see which retro revision is the best of the lot.

The first competition was to do a drag race in the LA river. But they each drove their 1970 counterparts for half the race. And those cars were really cool, too. Unfortunately, my favorite is the Mustang, and this race did not bode well for Adam. I Tweeted him about it, and he fessed up to his f’up. That’s okay. He really did look good driving it. And he made up for it in the next round. Oh, the Camaro won that round with Tanner driving it.

The second competition was to do a slalom in a drive-in theater. But there was a catch. The driver had to wear an electrical stimulus device at the mercy of the other two bystander contestants. Adam went first in the Mustang, and each other contestant found that they could not beat his time, even though, to paraphrase Tanner, the Mustang has inferior and out-dated live axle technology.

The third and final competition was to drive the car around a NASCAR oval track and try and get as close to The Stig’s top speed in the respective car. Adam went first, again, and tried to match Stig’s 153mph, but came up short at 141. Before Adam went, Tanner set the rule that once out of pit road, the lap started. Tanner went after Adam. Now, Tanner had added a spoiler to his Camaro to try and make it more aerodynamically sound to try and best The Stig. As he left pit road, the spoiler ripped off. He stopped, turned around, and went back to pit road to fix it. However, he disqualified himself based on his own rule agreed upon by all the contestants. Fail. Victory belonged not to Adam but to Rutledge who got 153mph in the SRT8.

There we have it, a 3 way tie. But, as Tanner said, muscle cars are all about the 1/4 mile. I would have to say he is right and the edge really is the Camaro’s in this episode. Not that I am a fan of the Camaro, since clearly I am a Mustang fan. This episode was highly entertaining, yet it didn’t stop with this Camaro-Mustang-Challenger competition.

Rutledge and Tanner took a Roush Stage 3 Mustang and Boss 302 out to the desert to race two horses. Thrilling stuff–at least with Tanner behind the wheel of the 302. Rutledge didn’t even press the Stage 3. In any case, Tanner had some really good things to say about the 302. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. Numbers don’t lie, and The Stig gives us the perspective that we need. The Boss 302 was faster–that’s right, faster–than the Roush Stage 3, even though the Roush has more power and a heftier price tag. The Boss 302 was equally as fast as the Aston Martin Vantage V12. Astonishing, right? Equally astonishing: The Roush Stage 3 barely, and I mean barely, beat the Evo. I know what you are thinking: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? That speaks to the high quality of the Mitsubishi favorite and the poor balance of the Roush. Haven’t I said in the past not to get a Roush? Well, if I didn’t, I was thinking it, because they have no objective resale value, but now the proof is in the pudding. Just kidding. It’s not like the track could utilize the Roush’s strengths. It all depends on your desired application, but I digress.

A game full of mistakes, a wet one too, but a loss in the end, Chelsea returns to London with a valuable away goal but down 2 goals. What will happen in the next leg? What will happen at The Bridge?

Mata got his goal due to a Napoli clearance mistake. Meireles made a defensive mistake, allowing Lavezzi room to strike and score. Ivanovich made the defensive mistake of not marking up on Cavani, who hand-balled but scored. David Luiz made the defensive mistake of trying to play the ball through Cavani to Cole, resulting in another Lavezzi goal. Silly but costly stuff in this game.

I have recently encountered a very hilarious television show, The Big Bang Theory. Now in its fifth season, this show is very clever and funny. The character known as Sheldon is a hoot, but I love each one of the characters as they all bring something to the table. Full episodes of the show can be watched at the CBS website. Several of the cast have Twitter accounts that you can follow as well, such as Jim Parsons, the actor who plays Sheldon. Oh, wait, no, he doesn’t. Bazinga!

Los Blancos thumped Racing Santander 4-nil today at the Bernabeu with Ronaldo opening the scoring, Benzema getting a brace, and Di Maria not only returning from injury but also slotting home a sweet rocket from outside the 18. Well done, Real Madrid!